Guilty Pleasures in Television

Shows I watched in total secrecy.

What exactly is a guilty pleasure? Wikipedia defines a guilty pleasure as something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. In other words: Something you like, but are ashamed to like it. In this article ill be talking all about guilty pleasure TV. The kind of shows that make you look out your front door to make sure your friends arent spying on you. I dont really consider myself to have any true guilty pleasures in my adult life (considering i really dont care if people make fun of me any longer). But being a kid with guilty pleasures is a whole different story. I may be destroying what little shred of dignity I have left, by revealing these to you guys but oh well bombs away!

My first guilty pleasure as a child was Mister Rogers Neighborhood. It was absolutely never cool to like this show. Even in preschool, if you admitted to liking Mister Rogers Neighborhood the name baby would immediately be slapped on you for the remainder of the year. Pre-school kids can be so so cruel.

Why I shouldnt have liked it: Lets be honest, this show is so simple a newborn infant could follow along. And at a time when mutant turtles were ninjas and rangers were mighty and morphin, an old man playing with puppets was just plain lame. The puppet play wasnt the only thing lame, just about everything he did was a snoozefest for a small child. Disagree? The highlights of the show involved him feeding his fish, waiting for the mail man and changing his sweater.

Why I liked it: I guess I was born with a love of all things retro because thats what I loved about the show. From start to finish you knew this show wasnt from your time. A lot of things have been said about Fred Rogers, many kids saw him as a kindly old grandfather figure, full of love and nurture and more love. Others found him to be more of a creepy old uncle that made them feel uncomfortable. I honestly think that Fred Rogers is an American hero. He devoted his entire life to making kids feel loved and teaching them that they are special just the way they are. This all may sound horribly corny, but in all honesty, I could only hope that my kids would learn something like that from a television show. For any Mr.Rogers fans reading this, check out the link below and tell me you dont have a little fuzzy feeling in your stomach.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcvRMHz4mb4

Next up? Barney and Friends! Yes that loveable purple dinosaur thats been rockin the PBS airways for 17 years now! For those living under a rock for the last 17 years heres the scoop: Barney is a dinosaur toy at a daycare that comes to life and dances with a bunch of unattended children. Yep pretty much just 238 episodes of that.

Why I shouldnt have dug it: I shouldnt have dug it for every reason, this (like Mister Rogers) always seemed to be aimed at an age group younger than me. Mister Roger's plot was very boring and basic, but atleast it made sence. A giant dinosaur and some non terrified kids? I think not. And where was the day care staff? You never saw a single adult, except for the ones Barney would warp in from the past (yeah that makes sence).

Why I did dig it: I didnt. I dont have a clue why I watched it, but I did. Every kid at my school would have probably stonned me to death, but i still found myself watching it. I think PBS transmitted some sort of hypno-beam through the screen during the show because it really didnt have any saving qualities.

Gerbert. I found myself watching this christian puppet show in my younger days. Its not my fault i watched the show, I blame Gerbert himself. I felt so bad for him, i knew that no kids were watching him and he was so pathetic. I couldnt just walk away from him. Plus the show threw in biblical elements, so I wouldnt just be walking away from Gerbert. I'd be walking away from God himself! Even the most die hard Barney fan would call me a wuss if he walked in on me enjoying this sunday morning show.
Why I shouldnt watch it: The show was so depressing! My parents had to hide the razor blades when it was on. Okay so maybe it wasnt that bad, but Gerbert was always down or pissed off about something. Nothing but bad things ever happened to him, he loses his teddy bear, his dog dies, his mom beats him. Alright maybe that last part didnt happen, but honestly it was a bummer.

Why I should have watched it: Aside from its positive message, the show did have some actually funny moments. The character above is Binny Brush. Hes pretty much a crazy homeless hippy paint brush that makes stuff out of garbage. Im not making that up, and I genuinley laugh every time I see that guy.

Full House. I know all of us have sat through one episode of this show. In a time when TGIF was all the rage how could liking this show make you the object of ridicule? One word, Michelle. That little troll was everywhere! Michelle dolls, Michelle books, Michelle shoes, " You got it dude" this and "Oh baby" that. She literally took over the show as soon as she could walk.

Why I shouldnt be ashamed: The show is a strange kind of entertaining. Its not funny in any way shape or form, yet I was strangly drawn to the story, just to see what happens. I think it must have been Uncle Jesse. I thought he was such a badass. That roaring harley, that rockin band, that wild flowing mullet. Definitely someone to look up to.

Why I should be ashamed of myself: Like I said, the show was not funny. Back in 1987 when the show was created, it was supposed to be an adult comedy about three single guys. They actually mentioned sex a few times and said damn and hell. As the three children got older something happened and the show completely took focus off the guys and placed it on the kids. Suddenly it became a show all about girl's life and girl's problems. Totally lame for an eight year old boy.

There are some shows that I was ashamed of as a child but as an adult I actually find these shows to be quite good. And to start these off, here is a show that I still get ridiculed for to this day. The Golden Girls. My mother was a "stay at home mom" so I ended up watching quite a bit of television aimed at women.Yet I managed to turn out relatively normal, even though I know all the golden girls by full character name and actress name. Alright so maybe im not so normal.

Why I loved it: Its actually a very well written show, those crazy ladies are entertaining as hell. And im not afraid to admit it. Not to mention Bea Arthur is smokin hot! Alright im just kiddin there, but really it won a ton of Emmys and Golden Globes.

Why I shouldnt have loved it: This show is probably the most universally panned show among non gay men. If you dont think so try mentioning Golden Girls next time your around your guy friends and watch the laughs unfold. Its understandable though, i mean it is a show about four old ladies that talk about sex and menopause. That sums it up pretty nicely.

Yep, Mama's Family. Another product of watching television with my mom. This show was about a sassy lady called Mama (aka Thelma Harper) and her mooching family. They lived in a town named Raytown and hung out at a bar called the Bigger Jigger. What else can I say? If that doesnt spark your interest, nothing can.

Why I shouldnt have watched: It was a show
about another sassy old lady. At that age I thought that all shows should have just been filled with macho, beef jerky eating men...preferably ninjas (or robots).

Why I should have watched: She was an old lady and she cursed alot. That was quite a novelty to me back then because none of the old people I knew cursed.

Last but not least, the one and only Bob Ross. You know the fro sportin hippy that paints "happy little trees" in his spare time. Yep, just one man with one fro talking about happy things and painting majestic mountains. I think this maybe came on after sesame street or something, but it was the most relaxing thing in the world to me.
Why watch: Like i said this was insanely relaxing! Its like a whole day of medatation crammed into thirty minutes. I think the world would be a better place if they took the time to watch this guy paint for a bit each day.
Why not watch: There actually isnt a reason not to watch Bob Ross, the guy is amazing!

Well there you have it, my awful dirty secrets of television. Id like to get a few things out of the way now, im aware a few years ago there was an article about guilty pleasure movies. Hopefully you can enjoy my article none the less. And another thing, I am not and never will be an english major, and im pretty sure most of you guys arent either. So please keep in mind that you are commenting on peoples articles not grading them. Now, with all that being said, let the public humiliation commence!

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I watched Mr. Rogers. Not Barney. Never heard of Gerbert, but I like that it seemingly had a positive Christian message. Full House I watched, and I watched and enjoyed the Golden Girls. lol. Mama's Family and I had a brief fling, but not much there. lol

Im sure they did, but they didnt at my school because we were too old, but i still liked it, thus making it a guilty pleasure for me. Point being eveyone has a guilty pleasure of some sort to someone. For instance all the shows i listed could be justified as a non guilty pleasure to say an old lady or a young child, but for me it wasnt cool to like them, but i did.

I watched lots of TV and I too watched many shows that I didn't brag about at school. I never watched Barney and Friends as I was already a teen when his show started. I did like Mister Rogers up to the 5th grade, Full House and Mamas Family.

Care Bears shouldn't be a guilty pleasure. Care Bears were aimed at all age groups, it wasn't a girly thing. It kinda is now though since the Care Bears don't actually help out troubled kids anymore....

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is that I feel bad for Bob Sagat. Full House was obviously not his brand of humor, only for him to get wrapped up in that show.... AND he had to do Funniest Home Videos too! D= At least he put that behind him and went back to what he does best: stand up adult comedy.

I know exactly what you mean. I had so many guilty pleasures as a kid too. I loved all the guy shows like my friends did, but I loved most of the girl shows as a kid too. Like Care bears, my little pony, punky Brewster, the Facts of Life. Plus as I got to Jr. High I still watched kids shows, like Ducktales and other "Kid" shows. I still remember being in elementary school and turning to watch Full House, my dad made fun of me so much for that, that it got to the point that I would say "opps, I accidently switched there. My bad." Just to get him to stop teasing. Now I can watch most of those shows in peace. Well, usually.

Seems like nobody had channel surfing skills back then we just zoned out on whatever crap came on next, perhaps because we didnt have a remote in hand? Everyone watched Mr. rogers, golden girls, and full house at some point but that doesent mean they didnt think those shows blowed it just meant they were too lazy to get up and change the channel. You are right every once in a while someone actually had a funny line or two. My little brother had a barney phase with bedsheets, curtains, etc. which we had to carefully cover up his past when he learned how uncool it was at school.

My sister used to be obsessed with Full House for a while. Not long after we moved here she just started to watch like crazy. Every single day without fail, she had to watch. Unfortunitly, I had a birthday when she was still obsessed with this show, and I suffered for it. Even though the show had been off the air for years, she somehow managed to find a Full House ultra girly activity book, graced by either Mary-Kate or Ashley on the cover. This was my present from her that year. I flipped threw it once just to be polite, then first chance I got, it went out into the garage.

Call me guilty, hawk. I watched everything on here right along with you except for Gerbert (what the crap?) Entertaining article, by the way. I just have a question for the other retrojunkers out there: Does anyone remember a Bob Ross type show with live drawing but it was of fairy tales? We used to watch it in Elementary school when the teacher didn't have anything planned but I don't know what it was called...

Very good article, and readable, thats a plus. I love Full House, even to this day. Me and those girls practically grew up together (I was about Stephanies age) And Dave Coulier, the man of a hundred voices, hillarious!

My family all watched the Golden Girls together. I didn't get some of the jokes but I thought Estelle Getty as the cranky old Grandma in the bad wig was funny.

Mama's Family I didn't see on tv till I saw it in reruns on TBS in my late teens. I loved it, it reminded me of some of my relatives who live out in Calgary.

TBS is also where I saw Gilligan's Island reruns. I liked it for Mary-Ann and Ginger. They occasionaly did some pretty out there stuff like an episode where Mary-Ann has a messed up dream after eating mushrooms.

Bob Ross was great when I wanted to take a nap as a kid and I couldn't get tired. I also learned a few painting tips along the way.

Mr. Rogers helped cheer me up when I felt bummed out and some of his segements were pretty cool, I remember in one they told you how to practice drums without a drum kit and in one of the last episodes some place in the States that at night projects movies and light shows onto a wall of water.

I watched Full House sometimes with my sister, I didn't like it and thought it was stupid but would watch it anyway cause the Beach Boys were on every other week at one point and I thought Rebecca was hot. I never looked at Bob Sagget the same way again after I saw him do dirty standup on A&E.

For a while I used to watch Step by Step, I knew it was stupid but it made me laugh.

I used to watch Gerbert as well, if I'm not mistaken wasn't there some Priest/Mime who taught kids sign language on that show? I still remember the signs for "Jesus" which has come in handy a total of zero times. I also remember Gerbert having a weird sexual subtext in many episodes, particularly one where he kept trying to get his friends to play a mysterious game with him simply called "Captain Towel".

Mama's Family may be my least favorite TV show of all time. It is one of the worst of the "Southern" shows that we've had to deal with over the years as a nation.

With the exception of Barney and Gilbert (which I've never heard of) I do and always have liked all of these shows. I think Full House is the universal Guilty Pleasure. Its up there with Pro-Wrestling, Candy Corns, the band Poison in that these are all things that nobody will admit to liking but millions of people do. I mean Full House can be found in syncication on some channel just about any time of day so somebody much be watching. I know the show is totally sappy, but somehow the sappiness makes it great, its like it has taken sappy to such a new level that it has become an art form (if that makes any sense). And to anyone who has seem Bob Saget do stand-up then you can appriciate the irony of such a man playing Danny Tanner.

hahahaha! I was forced to watch Golden Girls when I was younger because when it came on my grandmother wouldnt have it any other way lol. But i learned growing up that our "guilty pleasures" are the same as other kids in the class. I remember when I was in like elementary the kid that used to tease me about Barney loved the reading rainbow. Can you say snooze?

nice, i remember in high school i was at a buddies house. he was flipping through channels and stopped at "friends" which was then a pretty new show. he asked "you watch this show?" i froze and just stared at him, until he admitted, "i like friends." i instantly said i watched it too, but it was such an weird moment i still remember it perfectly this day. i felt like i was busted, but since he admitted it first it was all cool. thumbs up.

Soul Train was my guilty pleasure but it didn't start out that way. When I was about 5 years old or so, I watched Soul Train after all the saturday cartoons were over with. Well one time my mom caught me getting my groove on and I was mortified! She didn't really make a big deal out of it but for some reason I felt shamed and dirty *lol*
Now that I'm a grown-ass man I got no shame in my game.

I really hated Barney with a passion.... Barney was not nearly as interisting or fun as Sesame Street. And why the hell are 12 year olds learning about shapes and colours?! Yet every day I was forced to watch it in Kindergarden. Every. Single. Day. Augh! Pre-Elmo centric Sesame Street was way more awesome then Barney could ever be.

Oh yeah, I too watched Full House as a kid but I've yet to find another person in my age range who didn't, so I'm not ashamed to admit it. You might want to check out my 2-parter article on guilty pleasures I wrote: